This year’s field for the Shorty won’t be short on big names and star power.

The 2019 edition of the AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic, starting next week at the Cornwall Curling Centre, will include many of the sport’s superstars, with an expanded women’s field that’ll have ladies teams headed by Jennifer Jones and Rachel Homan, among many others.

It’s the fifth year the event is being held in Cornwall, and organizers said there were applications from over 90 teams, leading to the expansion of the ladies’ portion of the draw to accommodate all of the big-name teams that circled the tournament on the calendar.

The curling centre’s Jeff Bethune, in charge of media relations at the local level for the Shorty, explained the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing is what’s driven a lot of the curling royalty traffic to Cornwall.

“(It’s) the first year for teams to accumulate points towards qualifying for the 2022 (games),” Bethune said. “(So the Shorty is) shaping up to be the best ever.”

The event, beginning on Wednesday, Sept. 11, will have its semifinals and finals taking place on Sunday, Sept. 15, and the women’s draw is expected to include Eve Muirhead (Scotland), Anna Hasselborg (Sweden), Jamie Sinclair (U.S.) and Tracy Fleury.

The men’s division will have a field similar to the star-studded group of past Shorty editions, including Brad Gushue, Kevin Koe, Glenn Howard, Mike McEwen, John Epping, Brad Jacobs, Thomas Ulsrud (Norway) and Bruce Mouat (Scotland).

Teams are expected to begin arriving in Cornwall on Sunday evening, with practice rounds beginning on Monday.

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“It’s an unbelievable field, we’re pretty excited about it,” said Kevin Baker, co-chair of the event along with John Dilabio. “We’ve had the top men’s curlers in the past, (and this year) we have a lot of the top women’s curlers.”

In fact, the women’s draw has been expanded from 18 a year ago, to 25, making up five pools of five. The men’s draw will have four pools of six teams, for a total of 24, and an event overall total of 49.

That’s far off the application total of 90.

“We can’t take everybody – we wish we could,” Baker said. “We just don’t have a big enough facility to handle that.”

Expect big crowds for the action, and it might be a good idea to get tickets ahead of time. There are bleachers set up in the centre’s lounge area, but capacity is only 250

“With a list of participants such as this, the Cornwall event has been dubbed a mini-slam by the World Curling Tour committee,” Bethune said. “It would be akin to having the Rogers Cup tennis events that just finished in Montreal and Toronto occurring here in Cornwall – a (curling version).

“Watching the games live and being a part of the action is a great chance to interact with the crowd, players and coaches. . .getting up close and personal with all these great teams that regularly compete on CBC, TSN and Sportsnet is the way to do it.”

The resumes of some of the headliners are, of course, impressive – they’re the best of the best in the sport. Jones is a six-time Canadian champ, a two-time world title-holder and the 2010 Winter Olympics gold medallist.

Homan, of Ottawa, is a three-time national champion, a world champion and Canada’s representative at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

On the men’s side, Gushue is a two-time Canadian champ, Olympic gold medallist and a world champion, and he holds the all-time record for wins at the Brier, the country’s national championship.

Howard, perhaps the most decorated curler in Canadian history, has won the Brier four times, and has four world titles, as well as being a 17-time winner of the Ontario finals.

Jacobs is a past Canadian champ and gold medal winner at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and Koe is a four-time national winner who has won the worlds twice and who represented Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at shortyjenkinsclassic.com. Live, provincewide television coverage of various games will begin on Thursday (Sept. 12) on YourTV (Cogeco).

Note that preparations are also underway for Cornwall’s upcoming curling season, with an open house and registration taking place Sept. 17-20.

The facility will be open to try the sport throughout the week, with instruction available if requested. Youth curling registration will take place at the same time, for kids and youths seven to 20, as well as daytime ladies and senior men.